This is a long overdue post, I beg for your indulgence, something overtaken by more pressing, newsy events on the home front as what happens during the month of June which is fiesta time in Tacloban City.

This post, however, is timeless and is certainly something currently existing as shown in the photos here.

The Monfort Bat Colony, located in the Monfort Cave in the Island Garden City of Samal (IGACOS), Davao del Norte was certified by the Guinness World Records in 2006 as the largest colony of Geoffrey’s Rousette Fruit Bat (scientific name: Rousetteus amplexicaudatus).

An estimate made by the Bat Conservation International in 2006 put the population of fruit bats in the Monfort Cave at approximately 1.8 million. It has grown since then.

I hasten to add as a forewarning, though, that getting close to the caves and the bats is something not for the faint of heart, not due to anything scary or something, but due to the overwhelming stench and odor of the bat’s guano (waste). I hope it is being put to good use; it’s been called the “King of Fertilizers.”